Saving the City from Moto Ondoso

Post date: Oct 01, 2017 11:17:20 PM

A major problem for Venice’s infrastructure is moto ondoso (wave movement), the wakes generated by the motorboats in Venice’s waterways. Over time, the continuous impacts of these wakes has deteriorated the city’s foundations. Nodine, Jagannath, and Chiu (2002) found that wake height increases exponentially as boat speed increases: while a small cargo boat traveling at 5 km/h would produce a wake around 2 cm high, the same boat would produce a 15-cm wake if it were to travel at 10 km/h. The energy exerted on the canal walls by the wakes is proportional to the wake height; therefore, the 15-cm wake produced by the small cargo boat traveling at 10 km/h is over 56 times as powerful as the 2-cm wake produced by the same boat traveling at 5 km/h. While all of Venice’s canals have speed limits, these limits are only enforced in the Grand Canal. As a result, only 3% of boats traveled within the speed limit in 2002, and only 13% traveled within two km/h of the speed limit.

Currently, the Venetian company Insula is being contracted to restore canal walls that have been damaged by moto ondoso. This restoration involves driving wooden piles into the edge of the city's foundations, restoring mortar joints with injections designed to reinforce surfaces, and resealing walls using a technique known as “binder sealing” in order to reconstruct the outer face of the wall.

Gonclaves, Jasinski, Pauwels, and Tedesco (2016) proposed a five-year plan to reduce the effects of moto ondoso. This plan involved a combination of enforcing speed limits in Venice, which has the potential to reduce moto ondoso by 26%; taxi sharing, which could reduce moto ondoso by 14%; and the replacement of the hulls of boats with hydrodynamic hulls designed to produce less wake.

Works Cited:

[Diagram of Moto Ondoso]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2017, from http://www.multytheme.com/cultura/multimedia/didattmultitema/scuoladg/scienzedellaterra/ariaemotondoso.html.

Gonclaves, A.P., Jasinski, N.D., Pauwels, A.J., Tedesco, J.A. (2016). Increasing the Efficiency of Venetian Transport Systems for the Reduction of Moto Ondoso. (Undergraduate Interactive Qualifying Project No. E-project-010916-082719). Retrieved from Worcester Polytechnic Institute Electronic Projects Collection: https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-010916-082719/unrestricted/VE15-Wakes_Final_Report.pdf.

Nodine, E.E., Jagannath, A.D., Chiu, D. (2002). Moto ondoso index -- assessing the effects of boat traffic in the canals of venice. Retrieved from Worcester Polytechnic Institute Electronic Projects Collection: https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Scanned/02A008I.pdf.

Venice Project Center. (n.d.). Moto Ondoso. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from http://www.venipedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Moto_Ondoso.